On February 7, as the Winter Olympics were opening in Sochi, police in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, violently dispersed a peaceful protest by Circassian activists. Thirty-seven protesters in the republic’s capital were arrested, their flags and banners, some reading “Sochi Is the Land of Genocide,” were confiscated.... MORE

For the past several days, those hostile to the Ukrainians protesting against President Viktor Yanukovich on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv spread rumors alleging the presence of Chechens in the ranks of the opposition (https://pravdatoday.info/content/zulihan-tut-nastoyashchaya-geopoliticheskaya-bitva-ishod-kotoroy-zatragivaet-i-nas).While this rumor might have been disregarded as a bad... MORE

Since the start of the year, the conflicting sides in the North Caucasus and media monitoring organizations have begun providing figures for the number of people killed and wounded in fighting between government forces and militants in 2013.Losses in the conflict between the Caucasus Emirate... MORE

On January 30, civil activists in Karachaevo-Cherkessia appealed to republican Interior Minister Kazimir Botashev, calling on him to provide answers about high-profile murders in the republic in recent years. “We know that the murderers in some of these crimes were found and punished,” the appeal... MORE

Despite widespread fears and even hysteria among Russians, fertility rates—the number of children per lifetime per woman—are falling among the peoples of the North Caucasus and now approach those of the Russian Federation as a whole. That reality, one commentator says, has been largely ignored... MORE

On January 29, the Memorial human rights center reported that the police in Dagestan had compiled lists of Salafis and required people on such lists to notify the authorities when they intend to travel outside the republic. Suspected Salafis are required to submit such notifications... MORE

A powerful propaganda campaign against Salafism, Habashism and other prominent Islamic teachings was launched in Chechnya in mid-January. Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov has brought up the issue of fighting unwanted Islamic teachings at every public appearance he has made since them, demanding that all population... MORE

Increasingly it is becoming obvious that the leadership of Ingushetia and Dagestan are following the example of the Chechen government in trying to portray their regions as safe places in order to claim they have at least some level of popular support. However, there is... MORE

As the Russian government has been investing tens of billions of dollars in the construction of Olympic infrastructure in Sochi, a previously hailed grandiose project for developing tourism in the North Caucasus has been gradually fading away. To provide a more appropriate background for the... MORE

The recent warning from the US State Department not to wear patriotic clothing outside of the “ring of steel” in Sochi proper might have been thought to forestall an attack from Islamists. But there are many other “non-traditional” threats to foreign visitors to the Winter... MORE